AMTA 2019 Year in Review

We are excited about all that is coming in 2020 for our members and the profession. So much was accomplished last year because of AMTA members like you. These achievements belong to our members who helped both AMTA and the profession grow. Here are just some of the biggest moments and accomplishments of 2019:

In honor of Veteran’s Day, AMTA ran a one-page ad in a special Veterans Edition of USA Today about the benefits of massage therapy for veterans with chronic pain. The issue was distributed at more than 250 military bases, VA hospitals, and transition centers, with an additional 5 million readers online that are current or transitioning military and veterans.

Promoting massage therapy research

In 2019 AMTA continued its annual contributions to the Massage Therapy Foundation, as well as being the presenting Sponsor for the International Massage Therapy Research Conference, with monetary and in-kind gifts of $559,000. Your membership dollars are the reason these gifts, and the resulting research is possible.

Moving the massage therapy profession forward

On behalf of members and the profession the AMTA Government Relations team actively engaged the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Medicare Advantage plans to include coverage of massage therapy. CMS confirms the number of Medicare Advantage plans including massage therapy as a supplemental benefit will increase from 22 in 2019 to 192 in 2020.

Also, this year saw the inclusion of massage therapy in government guidelines for non-opioid approaches to pain management.

Giving back to the massage therapy profession

We, like you, value the importance of self-care for massage therapists to stay in top condition. With membership support AMTA was able to hit a milestone this year: massage therapists have taken more than 100,000 hours of free self-care CE with AMTA. As the largest nonprofit massage therapy association, AMTA is proud to offer this high-quality comprehensive set of free online CE courses.

As the largest organization representing the profession, AMTA’s membership surpassed 92,000 this year. AMTA’s Nonprofit Advantage® provided both members and others in the profession with free resources, continuing education, and support. AMTA is proud to promote the profession to consumers, and to government agencies and organizations to help move the profession forward.